LawZero has appointed Sam Ramadori as co-president and executive director as the non-profit gears up to develop safe-by-design artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Consequently, Ramadori is departing as CEO of recently acquired Montréal cleantech startup BrainBox AI.
Ramadori joins co-president and scientific director Yoshua Bengio as LawZero begins expanding its technical team, increases its philanthropic funding, and executes on its governance strategy, LawZero said in a statement. The organization added that its co-presidency structure combines Bengio’s scientific leadership with Ramadori’s strategic and operational expertise.
Ramadori will continue to collaborate with BrainBox AI and Trane Technologies as an executive consultant.
LawZero, launched earlier this month by Turing Award winner Bengio, was founded in response to what the non-profit claims is “evidence that today’s frontier AI models are developing dangerous capabilities and behaviours, including deception, self-preservation, and goal misalignment.” LawZero is putting together a team of AI researchers to build “Scientist AI” that it says will be able to monitor and create guardrails for agentic AI systems.
“Having witnessed first-hand the positive transformations that AI can enable in multiple fields, the last outcome I want to see is AI being used for the wrong reasons by malicious actors,” Ramadori said in a LinkedIn post.
Ramadori is leaving his role as the CEO of BrainBox AI to take on the new job shortly after it was acquired by Irish heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) giant Trane Technologies this past December. Founded in 2017, BrainBox launched its HVAC monitoring AI software in 2019 to help lower energy consumption in buildings such as apartment complexes, office buildings, and hotels. BrainBox’s Montréal operations and all 190 employees were retained post-acquisition.
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A BrainBox spokesperson told BetaKit that Ramadori’s position as CEO officially ended on June 13, adding that co-founder and CTO Jean-Simon Venne has been appointed as the head of BrainBox AI at Trane Technologies. However, Ramadori will continue to collaborate with BrainBox AI and Trane Technologies as an executive consultant.
LawZero was incubated out of Québec AI Institute Mila, which was also founded by Bengio, and many on LawZero’s research team have connections to the institute. The organization says it is structured as a non-profit “to ensure it is insulated from market and government pressures, which risk compromising AI safety.”
“Sam’s experience and leadership skills are exactly what LawZero needs to move forward,” Bengio said in a statement. “Just as importantly, he shares our vision that AI should be developed and used safely towards human flourishing.”
Feature image courtesy LawZero.